Used by industry as an alternative to sugar, sweeteners are associated with a risk of cardiovascular disease.
- Cardiovascular diseases are the leading cause of death worldwide.
- Sweeteners can be artificial or natural, such as stevia.
- Among the artificial sweeteners, there is aspartame, sucralose or saccharin.
Sugar is bad for your health! To replace it, manufacturers often use sweeteners, artificial sugars, less caloric. According to a recent study, published on September 7 in the British Medical Journal, they would also be bad for health. The work, carried out by a team of scientists from Inserm, INRAE, Cnam and Sorbonne Paris Nord University, demonstrates that the consumption of sweeteners is associated with an increased risk of cardiovascular disease.
Online questionnaires
To reach this conclusion, they analyzed data from more than 100,000 adults who participated in the NutriNet-Santé study. Launched in 2009, this public health research highlights the links between nutrition and health, thanks to the participation of more than 170,000 people. In this new work, participants answered online questionnaires regarding their medical history, sociodemographic data, physical activity habits, lifestyle and health status.
“They also provided detailed information on their food consumption by sending scientists complete records over several 24-hour periods, including product names and brands.specify the authors in a communicated. This made it possible to precisely assess their exposure to additives, and in particular to sweeteners.“
Increased risk
After collecting this information, the scientists identified the number of diagnoses of cardiovascular disease. They took into account other risk factors such as age, gender, physical activity, smoking, family history of cardiovascular disease, and other dietary habits such as consumption of saturated and polyunsaturated fatty acids, or red and processed meat. They find that consumption of sweeteners is associated with “an increased risk of cardiovascular disease, specifically cerebrovascular disease“.”Regarding the types of sweeteners, aspartame was more closely associated with the risk of cerebrovascular disease and acesulfame-K and sucralose with the risk of coronary heart disease.say the scientists.
Products to avoid
This is not the only risk associated with these products. Previously, scientific research had shown that sweeteners could increase the risk of cancer. For Dr Mathilde Touvier, research director at Inserm and coordinator of the study, these new results “do not support the use of sweeteners as safe alternatives to sugar and provide new information to address scientific debates regarding their potential health effects”.
